The Catalyst
by PurpleChi
Summary: The world as we know it, is already gone. And there is only but one Catalyst that could restore the balance back to normal. [IchiRuki. AU.]


**Standard disclaimer apply. **

**A/N: **So, yeah. New story from me. I started this while I was hunting for a new job. This just came out of nowhere while I was rewatching Walking Dead, and Resident Evil. Did ya know that the first game I ever played was Resident Evil 3 Nemesis in PS1? And I loooooved it! So there goes my love for zombie type of stuff. LOL. I did not like some of the drama of TWD, so I guess this will be more like RE. Hope you enjoy this story as much as I have imagined it. ^_^

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><p>I'm running…<p>

Right now, it's the darkest night and the rain could only drag me down. However, it does not seem to drag my pursuers down at all. For I could hear their growls, some of their groans and guttural sounds from behind me; chasing me to whatever direction I would take. The longer I run, the more they seem to gather behind me.

And so I run…

As if my life is on the line, with all the strength I could muster, and all the will I had to survive, I ran. I sprint though highways and streets, and climb through gates and barricades. I could not stop. I must not stop. For what is behind me, is only death. A painful, searing, and violent kind of death.

I am afraid.

But I can't be. No I must not be.

For I am on a mission…

And this… is only a part of that.

_**.~.~.~.~.~.~.**_

_**The Catalyst**_

_**Chapter One:**_

_**Peace**_

_**.~.~.~.~.~.~.**_

Several years into the future, there came a discovery.

One that many were trying to produce due to its popularity in the media. Despite the absolute threat and risk the research imposed, there were curious scientists and geneticists who played God and devoted their time and money into creating the nightmare the world faced today.

Most of the researches have failed. So many corporations have created an underground type of facility to house and fund the kind of research that could destroy the world. There were many that made close calls, but in the end, only one corporation emerged: Transcendere.

The company was led by a vicious and cunning man, Aizen Sousuke. He was wildly ambitious, believing he would take the world with his new discovery and threatening to use it against those who would oppose him. His only motivation was to make the world bow before him.

But of course, the world would not bow.

And so… the world was taken when he unleashed the result of his research.

But so was he.

It was a virus developed to create an undead epidemic. Yes, in simpler term – zombies. Also exactly the same way the virus spreads in media and films. Perhaps too many were inspired by them, that that inspiration somehow created a real world zombie apocalypse.

And before long, the virus spread quickly into the world, creating more of the undead and wrecking countries, cities and families. No place was safe. No cure was found. The population of the world was quickly dwindling.

The world as we knew it… was already gone.

This has been the world for a decade now.

The rest of us who survived have created settlements in secured areas. The safest were military bases. We have built our own walls, our own perimeters, and our own army to survive the undead army that would march through our door. Living a life in this time had been difficult. But then, we always have to do our best to live through.

I am a part of the group in charge of finding a cure that would make us immune to the virus, and at the same time, reversing the process of animating the dead. The dead should stay dead.

However, we were going nowhere with our own research, that is why, when we found out that Transcendere was still operational and looking for new scientists that would help with the procurement of a cure, I have planned & seek them out to help undo this world's madness.

But I have come into a dead end. And I knew I had to get out or die trying.

So I planned my escape, and before that, I had taken an important document and samples of the actual virus, so that I could work on it back in the camp.

_No one could escape from this facility alive,_ I once heard my friend said.

But I had to take my chance. So I ran…

The only thing I could do was to run...

_**.~.~.~.~.~.~.**_

I'm running back to the camp, to our hideout. It's so far away, but I think I could manage. They are after me - behind me, both the guards from Transcendere, and the zombies after my flesh. I slide through a fence that momentarily stopped my undead pursuers and into the building next to it. I jump through rooftops and houses, just trying to evade the undead and the military force that's after me. It is then at a yard with a really high wall that I could not climb, when I'm cornered.

"Damn it!" I curse, staring at the wall so high above me. I know I'm done for.

The samples in my jacket's right pocket, and the document in my left's, I quickly ran to open the gate to the road. I slowed down then, when one of the armed guards shot me in my stomach.

_Ack!_ I cry with blood spurting out of my mouth.

_I can't die yet… Not yet…_

So even then I run out, limply and weakly holding my stomach with blood dropping all over - attracting more of the undead, I manage to run through to the next street, and into the forest next, using the trees and bushes as advantage to hide. But it's impossible to outrun _him_.

Within minutes, I'm cornered in circle by the Trancendere's military personnel. They are led by a notorious leader. He smiles so casually at me, although something in his smile, and in his behaviour upsets me. "Ah, you shouldn't have ran, little one…" he says with his eyes closed. Sometimes I wonder if he's blind.

_Gin Ichimaru. The company's military leader, captain, head. No one escapes him. _

"Too bad. Ya know, the master told us to keep an eye on you, 'cause you 'ere the most promising."

I smile at him, only to provoke him more. "Too bad indeed. Why do you work for them? They are not creating the cure. They have started the epidemic. They are the destroyer of our world. So why?"

"Why?" he smile so cockily that it would annoy anyone who would see it. "Is there any good answer to that? If I tell ya it's about money, about security, about not giving a shit and all, will you accept that answer?" he grins, this time maliciously. "What if I say I want the world screwed like this, will you understand?"

"You're sick! You all are sick!" I couldn't fathom the idea that people would like our world this way.

He extends his hand in front of me, demanding for something. "Now, hand over the document, and the sample you stole."

I am surrounded. I'm as good as dead anyway. And I'm leagues away from our hideout. I knew they would either kill me to search for it, or I hand it over myself. So I reached for the document first and threw it right at him.

"Good girl. Now the other one."

I rummage through my right pocket and was shocked when I had my hand stabbed by a pointy object. I took it out nonetheless, and saw in front of me the broken glass of a sample I stole. That meant, the gunshot had not only wounded me, but also shattered the glass of the sample. That meant I'm infected through my wound…

I couldn't believe it. My eyes widen, and I just got mad that I had to throw him the piece of the glass.

He looks, and he understands as he reads the label, "I see you've got the X-1."

I pant. Now that I'm aware of a virus spreading through me, I could feel the effect all over my body. It is not painful, not excruciating… just numbing. I know there is nothing I could do now. "You've got what you wanted. And I'm infected… Finish me."

"Tsk, tsk. What makes you think I would kill you?" he asks. "Wouldn't leaving you like this be enough?"

A wave of zombies came into the forest, but they were all immediately shot in the head by the experienced men Gin have brought with him.

"No, you bastard!" I tell him angrily. There is no way I will be like them. "You will kill me, right here, right now. Or I will kill you." I threaten him, as I lunge forward, towards him in an effort to bite and infect him too. But all of the men surrounding us started firing at my body and I was thrown out of the way, into the ground bleeding my life out. "Please… Please…"

I could not believe I am capable of begging, but I did, just so that my reanimated body wouldn't hurt anyone at all… "If you so insist." I heard him say. My vision is a blur. My feelings numb. I could not feel pain, could not feel the bullets in my body. But then I felt something crush my skull, my brain. And I knew, I'm finally dead…

And as I lie dying, having my final breath and my final thoughts, I could only think of one person… and an apology.

_I'm sorry Ichigo… It looks like I won't be able to keep my promise. I won't come back._

I feel the cold, hard ground on my face, the wet blood oozing out of my body, and the footsteps going farther away.

Finally quiet, silent…

Peace…

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><p><strong>AN:** Have you ever thought about it? If there are people right now experimenting on zombie stuff? I did. :P Anyway, reviews will be greatly appreciated. ^_^


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